


Learning Curves

by genevievequinn



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Kara Danvers Needs a Hug, Party, Praise Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 12:26:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18660418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genevievequinn/pseuds/genevievequinn
Summary: Kara had no idea, but when Cat Grant says something to her, it triggers something inside her.Kara learns she has a praise kink.





	Learning Curves

“Kierra!”   
“Yes, Ms. Grant?”   
Cat Grant looks up, startled, by Kara Danvers’ immediate presence. “Where are—”  
“Here, Ms. Grant.” Kara smiles proudly, holding out the designs for the newest spread. “Is there anything else you need?”  
“Why? In a hurry to get somewhere?”  
Stuttering, Kara blushes. “Well, Ms. Grant—”  
“No, of course you don’t. You don’t have a life outside of CatCo.”  
“Actually, I—”   
“Go get me some coffee, I’ll be here a while.”  
“Yes, Ms. Grant.” Kara leaves the glassed-in office to indeed fetch some coffee. Winn was there immediately, as always. “You know, if she ever once let me speak a full sentence…”  
“What are you going to do? You can’t be late again for the D.E.O. Hank will have your head!” Winn follows Kara towards the elevator.  
“Would you keep your voice down? I’ll…handle it.” Spamming the down button, Kara takes a deep breath. “I can handle this.” After a quick run to the café, Kara is back in Cat’s office in no time. “Here you are Ms. Grant.”   
Cat takes the cup without making eye contact. When Kara doesn’t leave right away, she sighs. “Yes, Kierra?”  
“Uh—Well, I—Uh…”  
Cat’s eyes snap into Kara’s and stops her ramblings. “Sit.” When Kara glances at the couch but doesn’t sit, Cat repeats, “Sit.” Kara cautiously shambles on over to the pristine white couch, sitting precariously on the edge. Cat follows, after pouring a glass of whiskey, handing it to Kara (who promptly sets in on the table). She remains standing, however, as she likes the power dynamic. “Are you one of those…Type A personalities?”  
“Uhm. Ms. Grant, I—”  
“Of course you are Kierra! I should have guessed that sooner.”  
Kara raises her eyebrows at Cat. “I’m not sure I follow.”  
“Kierra.” Cat slows her voice down and leans over, as if speaking to a child. “You have done excellent work today. I am very proud of you.”   
Kara can feel her face flushing, and not from the near condescending tone being used on her. Gulping, she tries her hardest to hide how flustered Cat has made her. “Ms. Grant—”  
Cat smiles and reaches out. Gently patting Kara’s face, she says, “Take the compliment Kierra, and go home.”  
Before Cat can take it all back, Kara jumps to, leaving the office minutes before needing to be with Hank. 

“Ms. Grant,” Kara steps tentatively into the executive’s office. “What is a Type A personality?” It had been a few days, and while Kara didn’t want to admit that she wanted more recognition, she could help but feel curios about the while interaction.  
Cat, too busy to deal with her assistant’s questions, mumbles, “Just look it up. Or ask that geek friend of yours.”  
Kara takes her advice, Googling it. She can see where Cat would get the idea. While she isn’t necessarily overly aggressive or impatient, she does tend to obsess over work (whether that be CatCo or the D.E.O.), is always stressed, and frankly, she is quite competitive around other aliens of her caliber. That also means that craves recognition for her work without usually stating it. Glancing back up at Cat, she finds that Cat’s eyes were on her.  
“What’s her deal?” Winn slides his chair over, breaking Kara’s eye contact with Cat. “Ooo, what did you look up?” He turns the screen reading it, then laughs at looks at Kara. “This? No way. You are so far from a Type A personality! Kara, you’re so kind, and one of the least competitive people I know.”

“Good work today Kara.” Hank walks over to congratulate Kara on her melee training.  
“Thanks,” she smiles.  
“You ok? You look kind of…heated.”   
“What?” Kara puts her hands to her cheeks, feeling how incredibly hot they are. “Yeah! It’s just a bit warm in here.” Quickly running out of the room, she grabs some water to cool herself off. What is going on? This has never been an issue before.   
“Hey, you good?” Alex comes in. “Hank said you looked a bit flustered after training. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”  
Kara laughs, knowing full well Alex could not hurt her. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Kierra! My office! Now!” Kara jumps, looking frightened. She sounds angrier than usual. What now? She rushes into Cat’s office. “Close the door. And pour me a drink.” After getting her drink, Cat examines Kara with nothing shy of a predatory look.   
When she doesn’t say anything, Kara shifts around nervously. “Ms. Grant?”  
“I want to throw another gala. Next Friday.”   
“Yes, Ms. Grant. Do you have ideas—”  
“No. I want you to organize it.”  
Kara’s mouth gapes. Does Ms. Grant really trust her to do this? “Are you sure?”   
Cat smiles. “Of course I am. Kierra have you ever seen me unsure?”   
“Ms. Grant, I’m not sure I’m ready to—”  
“You are ready. You know how to order everything, you know what I’ll like and what I won’t. Just don’t do anything stupid or ugly. Don’t run anything by me, I want to be surprised. Oh, and I want something new. Don’t’ use colors I’ve used in the past.”  
“Yes, Ms. Grant.”  
Cat watches Kara intently. Finally, she waves her hand, “Go.”  
Kara spins on her heel, heading out the office door. Turning to Winn in horror (and hiding her face from Cat), she hisses, “She is setting me up to fail!”   
“What?” Winn asks through a mouthful of chips. “What do you mean?”  
“She wants me to design the next gala. In a little over a week. I cannot do this!”  
“It’ll be fine! We can ask for advice, maybe from Alex or James or—”  
“You think they will have any design advice? Winn! Cat is going to slaughter me if I mess this up with her name on it.”  
“We will get through this. We will help you.”  
Later than night, Winn convinces Kara to let people come over to assist in planning. He even brought color pallets. “Thank you, for coming. All of you. Whenever you’re ready,” Kara looks at her tablet, ready to take notes over how to even design this thing.   
Alex, beer in hand, points to a color pallet. “That’s…nice.”  
“Ms. Grant hates pastels.”  
“So that’s a no-go. Just take out all of whatever pastels are.” Winn retracts the pastel pallets. “What kind of colors has she used in the past?”  
“That’s the issue, she doesn’t want me to use anything that she used in the past. We need to find something new, and surprising.”  
“I think,” James leans forward, “we can base a few colors off Supergirl’s outfit. She’s very fond of her.”  
“But we’ve already done red and blue,” Kara collapses on the couch.   
The night wears on, colors and themes are thrown around, but Kara feels no closer to having created an event for Ms. Grant. James and Winn eventually clear out, leaving Alex and Kara alone.   
“Kara, are you doing alright?” Alex sits next to Kara, hand on her shoulder. “I’m worried about you.”  
“Yeah, I’m fine.”  
“You just seem…off.”  
Kara sighs, leaning into Alex’s open arms. “I don’t know.” She debates with herself telling Alex, but Alex is her sister. She can trust her. “Cat said something to me—”  
“I will kill her if needed.”  
“No,” Kara laughs lightly. “No. She just told me that I did a good job one day.”  
Alex is quiet for a moment, and Kara has to shift to see her face. “Kara, I’m not sure I follow.”  
“It…” she sighs again, shifting so her face is hidden. “It made me feel…weird…good even.”  
“Yeah, that’s natural. Hank has told you that before.”  
“No, it’s different somehow.”   
“You can tell her if you don’t want her saying things like that again.” Kara is silent in response, chewing her cheek. “Kara…”  
Kara sits up suddenly. “Yeah. Yeah I know.”  
“Wait, Kara—”  
“I think I’m going to go to bed, Alex. Goodnight.”  
Getting the point, Alex stands, making her way out of Kara’s apartment, wheels in her mind turning. 

Event planning is one of the worst parts of Kara’s job. Not only does she have to organize everything whilst doing her actual job, she has to make sure everything is up to Cat’s standards, which is rare. She can’t take Cat ripping into her, not now.   
“Kierra, come in here.” Ms. Grant is standing in front of her desk, reading over something. Kara shuffles in, exhausted from the amount of stress she’s under. “You look a bit run-down. Go get me a coffee.” Cat glances up at Kara, eyes dropping down her body and back up. “Grab one for you too.”   
For the first time, Kara has been given permission to use Cat’s card for herself, and not even for work related things. Busting out the door and down the elevator, she breathes in and tries to relax. The past week has been fatiguing to say the least, and she has a few more days to finalize everything. She hasn’t been sleeping, probably not eating properly, but she can’t think about that right now, she has to focus on this event.  
After a coffee break, she feels decently better. Heating Ms. Grant’s cup on the way up the elevator, she runs into Lucy. “Hi!” Lucy greets with a smile and a hug.  
“Hey,” Kara smiles stiffly. Not necessarily over the whole James thing, she can’t help but be a bit jealous of Lucy. “What are you doing here?”   
“Just stopped by to see James.” There’s an awkward pause, a recognition in the air.   
“How are you?”  
“Great! Yeah, Ms. Grant has me planning an event, so…”   
“How’s that going?”  
“Fine.”   
“Well, I’m sure it’ll turn out great. You always do a good job.”  
Kara’s throat closes, ever so slightly, and she knows she must look either uncomfortable, embarrassed, or both. “Thanks! Ok, bye!” Swiftly leaving the situation before she can have any further conversation with Lucy is probably for the best.

Today is the day. The gala is in a couple of hours, and Kara is frantic. Having even bought a new dress to match the aesthetic, she prays, prays, that Cat will at least tolerate it. She went with a nice lilac purple with accent of gold and dark beige. Her dress was a tight-fitting beige and mint-green, complete with a handbag. Winn had given her some encouraging words before arriving tonight to the gala location, but as she makes the final organization decisions, directing workers as they decorate, she can’t help but feel like she’s been set up to fail. She’s told Winn this multiple times, but she can’t seem to express to him how odd this whole thing feels.   
Watching the clock, she takes deep breaths. She can do this. She sees Cat enter, watching her face for immediate disapproval. Approaching cautiously, she greets, “Good evening, Ms. Grant.”  
Cat turns, slowly taking everything in. Humming quietly, she says, “Good evening, Kara.”  
Slightly shocked that Cat got her name right, she smiles gently. “What do you think?”  
Cat’s eyes finally settle on Kara, examining her look as well. “Mint looks good on you. Pastels look good on you.” Her head tilts to the side, eyes lingering a bit too long. “If I was in a harsher mood, I’d say this looks like my mother’s area rugs.” There’s a lump in Kara’s throat as she hopes for a following statement that is a bit more kind. “But…I do like this. Not too obnoxious, no pastels…very well done, Kara.” It must have been the way she said it, the tone Cat took, or maybe it was the look in her eye when she spoke clearly her approval of Kara and her work. But Kara’s knees grow weak, and she feels like collapsing. The worst part is that Cat seems to have noticed, the corners of her lips twitching ever so slightly at the sight. A hand, usually firm but now soft, lands on Kara’s forearm. “Kara, are you alright?”  
First, only a small squeak comes out of her mouth. Not even comprehending what just happened, and momentarily forgetting she was in a public space, Kara felt light headed. Eventually, she nods. “Yes,” she whispers.   
Cat’s hand remains, however. “You don’t look so. Come with me.” Cat leads her down a hallway, to a room with drinks and small snack food. When Kara starts to argue, Cat shushes her. “It’s for the workers. I’m sure they won’t mind one water bottle missing. Drink,” she commands, handing the bottle to Kara. Cat guides her to sit, and it takes Kara a moment to notice, but Cat slowly runs her fingers through Kara’s hair as she drinks. “Good,” she whispers once Kara has a drank more than half the bottle. “Good. Now, let’s go back and have an nice evening.”


End file.
